Saturday, October 16, 2021

TikTok Marketing

 

    TikTok is a fast growing social media platform that has become incredibly popular with younger generations, especially.  The marketing that I have seen on TikTok is quite different from the type of marketing that I see in more traditional digital marketing channels (tv / web) and even quite different than other social media advertising (Instagram / Facebook). 

    TikTok provides a unique marketing opportunity for brands that can be opportunistic for early adopters and creatives. First, TikTok's algorithm is not based on the number of followers an account has, making it very easy to go viral very quickly. TikTok is also not as saturated or as "salesy" as Instragram. This creates opportunity, particularly for newer or smaller companies. A company can run a successful marketing campaign on TikTok not only by creating viral videos themselves, but also by collaborating with an influencer, or by starting a trend that gains popularity with every day users. Chipotle is an example of a brand that did this successfully. To celebrate National Avocado Day, they challenged users to create videos of themselves dancing to celebrate their love for guacamole. More than 250,000 users uploaded videos with the hashtag #GuacDance, and Chipotle had their biggest day for guacamole sales ever*.

    Another popular trend for marketing on TikTok, is having your corporate account run by interns or junior level employees. Who better to reach a gen-z audience than a gen-z member themselves? HBO Max and Lionsgate are examples of companies that have TikToks being run by younger employees. Some of the videos make jokes about spending too much time on TikTok and asking users not to show the video to their boss. Other videos beg users to like and share the video so that the employees don't get fired. This is an interesting marketing tactic - brands using junior employees in an attempt to be more relatable to their audience.

  Overall, TikTok seems to be providing a new medium for brands to get creative with their marketing and it will be interesting to see how it develops as the app continues to grow.

*Source: https://businessrecord.com/MobileContent/Sales-Marketing/Sales-Marketing/Article/Marketing-Smart-marketing-on-TikTok/180/856/94611

    

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